Fallen Angel
by Natalie River
Summary: Sequel to Broken Angel though no prior reading is necessary. The Kira case is over. There's a new task force and there are new cases. They spent years their lives revolving around Kira. Can they move on now it's finally over?


It was the first day of September and Wammy's house, orphanage and school for gifted children was preparing towards the second of September when the school term would commence.

In a small meeting room a team of specifically chosen men and women who were awaiting the man that represented everything Wammy had built the orphanage around to enter.

Half an hour late L slowly staggered into the room, scanning his assembled team.

"Thank you for coming. I'd like your reports before I brief you on progress and cases that have come to my attention," he said slowly, drawing the words out across his tongue. Suddenly his head snapped up as if he were seeing them for the first time. "Where...where is Halle?"

The assorted task force were L's own private team. He'd handpicked each one like a selection box of the finest most expensive chocolates. They seemed slow in response, all of them so slow. L needed them to think faster, more effectively. They were just too-

"It's seven years since her sister died," said Sara finally. She had offered to go with the older woman to the graveyard but Halle had never been one that liked to admit needing support. Not even before Mello's death. _No...you have that stupid meeting to go to_. "Linda's with her."

Matsuda tapped his pen against the file he held open in his lap. A coffee ring stained the top of it. Matsuda's English bettered each day, though he still had trouble getting his head around the metaphors and idioms. Sometimes though he was so absorbed and preoccupied by a discussion that he didn't notice that the others, who were almost all Wammy's spawn had switched languages and so had he.

"So I can tell the President 'sorry, but Halle's sister died seven years ago and so she can't possibly help prevent an act of terror'," L slurred. "Or I can tell the parents of a murdered child who's been killed by some serial killer 'sorry my team can't function at its best because Halle's sister died seven years ago!" his voice began to rise; it almost broke like it had when he was sixteen. "Or maybe I can tell a possible new Kira 'dreadfully sorry but can you put your plans for world cleansing on hold, Halle's mourning a sister who died seven years ago!"

Strange mixtures of feelings burst through the room like lightning on a peaceful night. The great detective never...never spoke like that. Never swayed on the spot as he indicated with his hands, back straight, ranting and raving wildly. He...

Liam couldn't think about that. He had had a rough night and now was having a rough morning. He was exhausted, not from lack of sleep (though that was also true) but from the mind numbing pointlessness of his profession. There had been a particularly vicious series of murders that he knew deep down without his, Lea and Halle's participation would never have been solved. They had occurred in New York and they'd arrived back in Britain hours ago.

It hadn't been an L level case. But then neither had the LABB murder cases.

Nor were quite a few of the cases that L was handing off to the team. They were the type that L used to solve in his spare time.

The team exchanged bewildered glances. Sara sighed. "Please just-"

"There's a ninety six percent chance that you didn't sleep in your own bed last night," L informed her, twirling a lock of hair around his thumb and forefinger. "There's a further seventy nine percent chance that you engaged in sexual intercourse with a man. Now it is obvious that Mr. Matsuda hasn't had sex in quite a while now. And it is also known that you two are engaging in a relationship. I may not be accustomed to social niceties however I do believe that sleeping-"

"Hey back off," Lea growled as she stood slamming a fist into the table. "Do we have a case that you want all of us on or are you just here to have a go?"

Sara shook her head in disbelief, mouth moving as if slowed by time, her voice muted.

L stopped and froze. He stared at Lea for a moment. It was only then that Liam noticed how vacant his eyes were, how bloodshot and diluted they were.

"Jesus," he muttered raising a hand to his forehead. _He recognised the signs from when Mello had turned up at lessons at Wammy's high and all Watari's horses and all Watari's men had never ever realised that Mello was as high as a kite. _"That's it," he announced. "Out."

L stared at Liam, taken aback. "You can't tell me to leave," he shot back.

Matsuda drew a sharp breath, he'd already been on his feet protesting at the outrageous outburst in order to defend Sara's honour. _We were together last night actually and we did have the most glorious sex thank you very- _Sara was also standing now her voice shrill and nearing a shriek as she argued her defence. Lea had her hands on her hips, voice slipping into its former gangster style. Liam looked as if he was about to deck the man.

Matsuda was aware that he wasn't breathing as his heart raced in his chest and he took everything in. Lea seemed to have suspected from the beginning that something was wrong she was nodding silent confirmation to Liam now.

L's eyes darted around the room one last time. Their looks had turned from disgust and hatred to pity. Oh the pity. It wasn't as if they even cared. They were doing a job. They were paid to do that job. Oh they were all so full of comfort and support and then when they realised who he was and what his name was the platitude would drop once again to steely disapproval. Because emotions were not an advantage.

_Caring is not an advantage. _

And still they pitied him.

"Traitors! That's what you are!" he spat. _They don't understand. None of them do. _Halle...maybe an inkling thanks to Mello. But the rest of them? No...no not in a million years. _Tell me do you realise that you're slowly killing yourself and then discover that you just don't care? _

They were all so _slow. _None of them were high Wammy's material. None of them were even in the top ten. None of them had any concept of...of anything.

"You're so useless! You-" he gripped his head, pulling at his hair. _They whisper things about you you know. Like they did when you were little. Always talking. Just like the bells. Always ringing. _"Stop it! All of you stop it!" _their hands reach forward for you, trying to grasp you, trying to grab you. Stroking your skin. _"Get away from me!"

The numbers didn't make sense. The statistics didn't work. _Nothing is going right. _It was all wrong. Because the numbers were meant to be there. Without them the world couldn't focus and turn. It didn't make sense.

"You're high," muttered Sara. "Please...just let me see if you've hurt yourself...your hand is bleeding...I'm a doctor, remember, just let me-"

_How could I forget? I'm not..._ the pieces wouldn't fit. They just wouldn't fit and it was all wrong and-his throat constricted and the cogs of his brain stopped whizzing and his lungs refused to work yet his heart pounded on his ribcage like the wings of a mockingbird determined to be free.

Emotions running through his mind detoured him from pure reasoning, there was no use or place for them. Yet still they existed and they piled up and attacked from within when they set upon him. L concentrated his entire will into keeping them hidden from those who called him cold and unfeeling. Because he had to be number 1, he had to be good enough to...he had been good enough. Might not have been chosen, but he was still L.

He won. Kira was dead. He solved the puzzle...

Then when the feeling and the faces flooded free as his chest constricted and his breath became laboured as every muscle tried to jump out of his skin and no one understand and he knows he's dying.

_Mello..._

_...L_

"Near! Please, please, can you tell me what you've taken?" soft sweet scented hands. "Call an ambulance! Now!"

It was September the first and all of Wammy's was preparing for the commencing school term.

The Kira case had been solved more than two years ago. Mihael Keehl and Mail Jeevas were long dead.

September the first was just another date that the children of Wammy's would whisper about for years to come. September the first was the day Nate River, the new...the _only _L, turned up high.

No one could ever quite work out why.

They couldn't solve the puzzle.

They were just losers.


End file.
